So one of my favorite plants of summer is deadly nightshade. I found these ones in North Philly while walking to my brothers graduation from Temple U. Soon these berries will be bright red or orange and I can never resist makings a few batches of dishes with this plant wrapped around. It is a funny thing as you really do not want to eat deadly nightshade....but it is so very beautiful. Stay tuned for the next edition of the night shade dish. Or check out my website for last years run.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

It is not fancy shoes or European vacations I am after. Just a simple life where dishes pay the rent. And they are almost doing that, but not quite this month.So help a girl out. Visit the store and buy a dish...Please. Everything is on sale, again.

So I taught a workshop at The Clay Studio this past Saturday titled Significant Surfaces It was all about pattern and layering decoration on ceramics to create surfaces with depth. I brought some greenware dishes and tumblers to clean up and demo on. I gave each student two pieces to work with and they made many tiles and even some wall pockets and tumblers.We tried cutting paper stencils and layering them between colored slip. You paint the surface of the pieces with a colored slip, wet and then stick a few stencils on the slip (which should be leather hard-ish, not wet), then you paint another color of slip and layer a few more stencils. Do this a few times and then peel of all the stencils. The tricky part is finding all the paper under the slip. Some one was getting creative with the mint leaves from her lunch time ice tea.Other things we did included sprig molding, slip and under glaze inlay, copper and cobalt carbonate photo-copy transfer taught to me by Katie Parker of New Work, slip and under glaze trailing and we made Print Gocco Screens and talked about thermo-fax screensHere's the class. All smiles as so much fun learning was happening. It was such a treat to teach in the air conditioned and newly renovated studios on the third floor of The Clay Studio.We made a mess and I was so very tired by the time it was all over. The class was very helpful and cleaned up super well. All in all a great experience. I think next time a two part work shop would be great so I can show glazing as well as wet clay work. But there is time enough for that yet.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Summer Solstice at the Kimmel Center was great!!! There was a group of bagpipers in kilts and an amazing troupe of American Indian (i think) dancers. It was stinking hot but the vitamin water people were on hand to give out free colored water yeah!! I had some lovely neighbors and sold dishes to some very smart people. Also my favorite Etsy customer of the year stopped by to pick up all the dishes she got at my sale. Thanks again Sharon!!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Kicking off this year's Solstice is InLiquids Art for the Cash Poor outdoor art show and sale, featuring photographs, paintings, jewelry, clothing and handmade books, with all items priced under $200. Spruce Street will be closed from 2pm to 7pm between Broad and 15th Streets, with food and drink available for purchase.

Come out and pick up a dish or two that really will last for the longest time.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

So my sweltering studio was out of the question for most of the day. I filled my time experimenting with my new (purchased last year but unopened until today) Print Gocco.I made some long overdue address change / message from Philly cards.Could use some practice with the thing but they came out ok, sort of bootleg style.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Significant Surfaces: Creating meaning through pattern and layers.

Learn how to transfer images on to your work using easily accessible materials. Naomi will demonstrate the different ways to layer surfaces using both found images and patterns you create yourself. Students will make their own screens in class to use throughout the workshop and then take home.A $25 material fee will provide students with basic screen printing materials which are yours to keep.All Skill Levels

Friday, June 6, 2008

Today I made some new glazes which I thought looked quite nice before mixing.Oh mason stain is so yummy.....

Miserable side note*

My MacBook charger just totally melted. A real fire hazard if you ask me...or any of the 700 people who have left bad reviews of the things on the mac web site. Guess how much a new one is. If you said too much or $80 you are right.

Casting time again. I am now getting ready for my next show Art for the Cash Poor which is in two weeks.So casting casting casting has begun.People have been asking to see my whole process, start to finish, so this is the beginning. Freshly cast dishes before any cutting cleaning or decoratingStay tuned....

So the first day of the Craft Bazaar was a rainy one but Sunday was beautiful. I am however so forgetful when it comes to taking pictures, I only managed to shoot a few of the booth and not very good ones at that. Ah well, many more opportunities to come for picture taking. I will say though my investment in a super dooper tent certainly paid off. Not a drop of rain got in on Saturday.

Perhaps I should mention that my awesome shelves were made by my amazing friend Tim Lewis of Tim Lewis Wood Working. They are a modified version of a design that Mike Davis made for Renegade last year. Thanks Dudes!!!